Fishing Trip
by Fallen Ark Angel
Summary: Natsu and Happy just want someone to go fishing with them, every morning, at five a.m. Is that too much to ask? - One-shot.


Fishing Trip

The first day of spring meant a lot off things for many different people. For Natsu and Happy, however, it meant one thing and one thing only.

"I cannot believe that you guys have me out here before sunrise," Lucy complained as she followed her two guys down a path to the river, to their usual spot. "I mean, seriously. Couldn't you have asked Lisanna to come? Or Wendy? Someone other than me?"

"Come on, Luce," Natsu said as he and Happy walked along, both with their own poles in their hands, the Salamander with an extra for his girlfriend. "We wait all year for this! The first day of spring is crazy important for us. And not just for the fish either."

"Yeah," Happy agreed as he skipped along. "I mean, they're super important."

"Super."

"But it also means that our house isn't, like, below freezing every day."

"And that I don't need a coat," Natsu added.

"And you won't be whining every day, Lucy, that you're cold."

"Or dragging down the team."

"And we won't have to pretend to be ditching you, but actually going off on missions just to get away from you."

"Or-"

"Now you guys are just being mean," the celestial mage said with a frown. "Seriously."

"We're only kiddin', Luce," Natsu said, glancing back at her. "You know we love you."

"Yeah," Happy agreed, still skipping. "Most of the time."

"Shut up, cat."

Natsu took to whistling then, nodding his head as he went. Lucy and Happy kept trading glares though and paid him no mind.

When they got to their usual spot, Natsu set out to dig up some worms for the bait while Lucy and Happy found a spot to sit by the river.

"Worms are so gross," Lucy said as Natsu came back to bait the hooks. He was seated on one side of her, Happy on the other, patiently awaiting his best friend to give him his pole back. "And ew! I hate watching you skewer them."

"Then cover your eyes," Natsu suggested before casting the line of one of the poles and handing it over to Happy. He did the same for the next one and gave it off to Lucy. Then it was his and all three of them were sitting there, poles in their hands, as the sky lightened. There was no sign of the sun though.

"I'm gonna catch at least twenty fish," Happy told them both excitedly. "Maybe more."

"Whatever you say, little buddy," Natsu said before elbowing Lucy. When she glanced at him, he added softly, "He won't catch, but one. If that!"

"Hey," Happy complained. "I heard that."

"No, you didn't."

"Did too, Natsu. You big meanie. Lucy, he's being mean to me."

She only looked out at the river. "I'm sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of my whining and complaining."

Both guys paused before nodding.

"Makes sense," Happy said which of course got him a glare from the blonde.

"For two guys that love me, I'm not feeling too loved right now."

Natsu laughed before moving to stab the end of his pole into the soft dirt beneath them. Once it was stable, he let it go before shifting closer to Lucy and throwing an arm around her.

"You know you're, like, one of our favorite people ever, Luce," he said. "Huh, Happy?"

"Well," he began, as if in deep thought. "There's Erza before her, of course."

"What?"

"Of course," Natsu agreed.

"Then there's Mirajane."

"Yep."

"Guys-"

"And Lisanna."

"Would you-"

"Totally."

"Then Wendy."

"Mmmhmm."

"Knock it off, guys. Seriously. I-"

"And Carla-"

"You're alone on that ship, little buddy."

Lucy finally huffed. "The only one I beat out is a damn cat, Natsu?"

He tapped her nose. "Jealous?"

"Hardly. Try more disappointed."

"Awe." Natsu kissed her cheek. "Lucy needs confirmation then, Happy! That she is important to us."

"I'm still stuck on the part where you think she's better than Carla."

"You guys are such jerks."

Natsu only moved to kiss her head, making Lucy tense up. Happy only glanced over at them and took to snickering.

"You _love_ Lucy, Natsu," he giggled. Natsu was unabashed though as he only kissed her again before shifting away and picking up his pole once again.

"Of course I do," Natsu told him to which Lucy only blushed slightly and became very focused on her fishing rod.

"I love you too," she whispered, face still warm.

"Don't you, Happy?" Natsu asked, glancing at him. "Love Lucy?"

When she glanced at Happy, he only shrugged.

"Guess so," he said, trying far too hard to be nonchalant.

"Only guess so, huh?"

"Lucy-"

She only smiled at the cat then though. "I guess I like you too."

"Hey! I said I guess I love you. Not just like."

"You sure are clingy, Hap," Natsu told him "Sheesh."

"I know," Lucy agreed. "No wonder no nice felines ever hit you up."

"No fair," Happy whined. "We're supposed to make fun of Lucy together, Natsu. Not the other way around!"

Smiling, Lucy reached over with one hand to pat the Exceed's head. Happy only frowned at her though.

"It's okay, Happy," she told him. "I'm sure in five seconds, Natsu will be telling me that I'm annoying or whinny or something."

"Well," Natsu said slowly. "You were rather whiny this morning when Happy and I came to get you to go fishing."

"I was asleep and you broke through my bedroom window. You scared me."

"How else are we supposed to get in then, huh?" Natsu shook his head. "You haven't ever given us a key."

"You've never asked!"

"Why would I when I have a perfectly good window to crash through, Luce?"

"Sheesh, Lucy, use your head," Happy said. She only took to rolling her eyes.

"I knew you guys would get back to bothering me. You always-"

"Hey!" Natsu jumped up suddenly. "I caught something!"

"Reel it in, Natsu." Happy stared at his best friend with a wide girth of excitement. "Hope it's a big one!"

But it wasn't. It was possibly the tiniest fish in the world. So small that none of them would have rightfully enjoyed it, so Natsu just released it, much to the disappointment of his blue friend.

"You gotta let the baby fish go, little buddy," he told him. "So that they go out, grow, and then you can catch 'em again later."

"I'm sure we'll catch tons more fish, Happy," Lucy told him with a sigh. "'cause as much as I hate it, I have a feeling that we're going to be here all day."

And they were. There all day that is. Eventually, Lucy got bored and left them for awhile, claiming she had to go to the bathroom.

"Uh, look around, Luce. We're in the woods!"

Happy nodded in agreement with Natsu. "Pick a tree, any tree."

"No thanks, guys." She patted each of them on the head as she stood. "I'm going to go into town for an hour or so. Think you'll be alright without me?"

"If you really wanna leave that badly," Natsu said. She only grinned at him.

"Did you guys want me to bring you anything back? Like, gee, I dunno, fish? Or real fishermen?"

"We are real fishermen," Happy complained, shooting daggers at the retreating celestial mage as she only giggled into her palm. "Just for that you can't come back! We'd rather have anyone than you."

After she was gone, it was just the two best friends again. Happy kept glaring in the direction that Lucy had gone off in, but eventually, Natsu reached over and tapped him gently between the ears.

"Forget about Luce. You know that she's not as outdoorsy as us," he said. "We'll catch more fish without her."

"That's how come I wanted to invite Lisanna instead," Happy complained. "She'd have stayed and-"

"Happy," Natsu sighed. "I thought we went over this, huh? Lucy's my girlfriend now. That means that I have to invite her before I invite anyone else. You know that."

"But she wouldn't have minded none, I bet," the cat insisted. "If we invited Lisanna instead. She'd probably have even been happy. She-"

"I know," Natsu said, staring out at the river then. "But I'm not gonna risk hurting her feelings, alright?"

Happy only humphed before grumbling, "How come Lisanna couldn't have been your girlfriend instead?"

Frowning at that, Natsu glanced down at his little buddy. In the three months since he'd officially begun dating Lucy, Happy and her had bickered, fine, they always did, but Happy had never said _that_.

"Because, Happy, I don't…" He had no answer for that. He truly didn't know why he didn't like Lisanna how he liked Lucy. He honestly never had. Lisanna had always just been his best friend. Like how Happy was. But Lucy… He'd just always thought she was… Gah! He didn't know! Where did Happy get off asking him the hard stuff like that?

"Do you not like Lucy or something, Happy? 'cause I thought you did."

"I do," the Exceed told him, staring down then, at the ground, as if he was embarrassed or something. "I like her a lot. She's my friend."

"Then why-"

"But I like Lisanna too! A lot."

"So do I."

"Then-"

"But for different reasons, buddy." He ginned at him. "And if you wanna invite Lisanna to come fishing with us next time, just say so."

"It's that. Not really. It's just…"

"I don't love Lisanna, Happy," he told him simply before looking up at the sky, a if thinking. "Do you want me to? Be with Lisanna instead of Lucy?"

"A little."

"Why?"

"I dunno." Happy felt awkward then and only glanced up at Natsu. "I just always thought that it was the three of us. Until Lisanna… And when Lisanna got back from Edolas, I thought it would be again."

"I love Lucy."

The cat took to snickering then, unable to help himself.

"Yeah," he said. "I know. You _love_ her."

"I do."

"But," Happy began after finishing his giggles. "Can't you love Lisanna too?"

"Not this way, buddy."

"Hmmm."

"But…" Natsu smiled then. "It'll always be the three of us, alright? Me, you, and Lisanna. Lucy's not apart of that. She's apart of something completely different. You know that. She's…our teammate. And don't you like when it's just us three too?"

"Yeah," he sighed. "I do."

"And when it's the four of us, it's even better, huh?"

"Yeah."

"So stop worrying about it. Just 'cause I didn't invite Lisanna this time, doesn't mean that we can't next time."

When Lucy finally did show back up, it was a few hours later and she didn't seem very interested in the idea of fishing. No more than she had been before.

"I can't believe you guys haven't caught a single thing yet."

"Natsu did catch that one fish," Happy reminded. Then he snickered. "Though it hardly counted."

"It did too! And I'm sure one day I'll catch him again and he'll be super big," Natsu assured both of them.

"One day," Lucy agreed as Happy rolled his eyes.

When their fishing excursion finally came to an end, it was with them only walking away with two fish, which Lucy let both Natsu and Happy eat, as she'd apparently gotten something when she went back into town.

"Today was great," Natsu said as they headed back to his and Happy's place to put up the fishing rods. Right after they'd be going down to the guildhall to hangout. "Can't wait till tomorrow."

"What's tomorrow?" Lucy asked.

"We do it all again, of course," he told her. Lucy glanced at him before at the cat riding atop his head. Then she shook her head.

"No thanks."

"What? Luce-"

"No," she said. "Invite… Won't Lisanna go with you? She's normally into you guys' stupid plans."

"Fishing isn't stupid," Happy complained.

"If you guys are planning to come get me before sunrise again, then yes, it is stupid."

"Lucy's just not a true believer, Hap," Natsu told him.

"Believer in what?" Lucy asked, making a face.

"In the freedom that's found in fishing, of course."

"Of course," she mimicked. Then, with a shake of her head, she said, "Yeah, you're right though. I'm definitely not a believer in that."

"So we can take Lisanna fishing in the morning?" Happy asked.

"Yeah, sure," Lucy said. "What do I care?"

This excited both Happy and Natsu as they thought that Lisanna would have been far more entertaining the next day than Lucy had been.

…Until they got to the guildhall and informed Lisanna of their plans for the next morning. She had been seated at a table, looking over some ancient book with Levy, when she was joined by the three of them. At the sound of early morning fishing trip the next day, she only stared wide eyed at the two of them.

"Um," Lisanna said slowly, just staring at Natsu for a moment before saying, "I thought Lucy was the one that did that now. You know. Got up early and did things with you guys? Like fishing or training and stuff?"

"They want you," Lucy told her. "And I don't want to go with them tomorrow."

"Fishing not that fun, Lulu?" Levy asked her with a grin.

Lisanna only turned her gaze to the blonde. When Happy and Natsu got distracted by Mirajane bringing them a plate of food, Lisanna, who Lucy had sat next to, hissed softly at her, "I thought you were the one that had to do all these stupid things now?"

"I tried, Lisanna, but fishing wasn't fun."

"And you think it would be for me? You're his girlfriend."

"You're his best friend."

"You-"

"Fishing sounds like loads of fun," Levy said then, closing her book before looking to Natsu and Happy. "Can I go?"

"Well," Natsu began, glancing over at her. "We only got three poles. And Lisanna-"

"Levy can go," Lisanna said.

"But Lucy-"

"I still don't wanna go," she said. "If Levy wants to…hangout with you guys, let her."

"Have fun," Lisanna agreed as she and Lucy shared a look. Levy only grinned though.

"You and Happy are super good a fishing, right?" she asked.

"Super."

"Masters at it."

"Good. If you teach me and I get good at it, then I can show Droy and Jet how to fish. And ooh, Gajeel."

"Whatever you want," Natsu said with a shrug as Happy only made a face over at Lisanna.

"You sure you don't wanna come?" he asked.

"Very sure," she told him. "More than sure. Trust me on that."

Although Happy was a tad disappointed, but he and Natsu were a little excited about the prospect of hanging out alone with Levy. They never had before and everything new was an adventure for them.

…Until they burst through the apartment window the Iron Dragon Slayer at five in the morning the next day to get the sleeping woman next to him. That was how Natsu ended up with a fight that for once, he wasn't looking for and Levy got banned by Gajeel from ever going fishing.

Ever.

Especially with the damn Salamander.


End file.
